Robbers target casino winners

Six North­east Phil­adelphia res­id­ents are among the 10 people robbed of thou­sands of dol­lars out­side their homes after re­turn­ing from area casi­nos. One vic­tim lost $17,000 when robbed last week on the 2800 block of Welsh Road.

On Fri­day, po­lice an­nounced a $10,000 re­ward for in­form­a­tion lead­ing to the ar­rest and con­vic­tion of the rob­bers.

Po­lice be­lieve rob­bers used a spot­ter who watched vic­tims cash out their chips and re­layed their de­scrip­tions to oth­ers, who then fol­lowed them and robbed them out­side their homes.

North­east De­tect­ives are in­vest­ig­at­ing all the rob­ber­ies, which also in­volve vic­tims in Up­per Mo­re­land Town­ship, Mont­gomery County, South Phil­adelphia and North Phil­adelphia, Sgt. Den­nis Rosen­baum of North­east De­tect­ives said Monday.

Po­lice have the spot­ter in the last five rob­ber­ies on sur­veil­lance tape from the Sug­ar­House casino on Delaware Av­en­ue. He is seen watch­ing the casino’s cash­ier win­dow and talk­ing on a cell phone.

“It’s the same guy,” Rosen­baum said.

The rob­ber­ies began in Decem­ber 2011, he said, and all in­volved two black men. Al­though vic­tims’ de­scrip­tions of the rob­bers’ heights var­ied, they were all thought to be 25 to 30 years old. A late mod­el sil­ver Monte Carlo and a late mod­el small sil­ver sedan ap­pear to be in­volved in the rob­ber­ies, Rosen­baum said.

Most of the vic­tims — in­clud­ing all of those from the North­east — were of Asi­an des­cent, Rosen­baum said, and were com­ing home from Sug­ar­House.

Dur­ing the two most re­cent rob­ber­ies, the crim­in­als were armed with Tasers.

On Sept. 16, a Rawle Street wo­man was ac­cos­ted by two men, robbed of $8,000 in cash and jew­elry and Tasered, po­lice said. Rosen­baum said the wo­man was hos­pit­al­ized be­cause she was preg­nant.

The Welsh Road rob­bery oc­curred two days later at about 4 a.m. Again, two men armed with a Taser were the cul­prits. While fight­ing to keep her purse from the rob­bers, the wo­man was slightly cut, Rosen­baum said, but po­lice aren’t sure if she was cut by a knife or by her own keys.

Po­lice have re­leased some of the casino sur­veil­lance foot­age and are ask­ing for the pub­lic’s as­sist­ance. To view the sur­veil­lance video: Vis­it The Phil­adelphia Po­lice You­Tube Chan­nel or vis­it ht­tp://philly­po­lice.com/news

To sub­mit a tele­phone tip, dial 215-686-TIPS (8477) or text a tip to PPD TIP or 773847. Rosen­baum said tips also can be phoned in to de­tect­ives John Har­rigan or Joseph Baird at 215-686-3153 or 3154. ••End­Frag­ment